Summary Understanding how interspecific variation in functional traits influences species’ capaci... more Summary Understanding how interspecific variation in functional traits influences species’ capacity to persist in fragments and use patches in fragmented landscapes is fundamental for the creation of effective conservation plans. This study uses phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate which functional traits of bat species are correlated with their vulnerability to fragmentation in a tropical landscape with low fragment–matrix contrast. Bats were captured over two years in eight forest fragments, nine control sites in continuous forest, and in the secondary forest matrix at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazon, Brazil. We tested the hypothesis that there is a significant relationship between species functional traits, environmental gradients (continuous forest and fragment interiors, edges and matrix) and patterns of species distribution using phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) models, as well as a combination of RLQ and fourth‐corne...
Várzea forests account for 17% of the Amazon basin and endure an annual inundation that can reach... more Várzea forests account for 17% of the Amazon basin and endure an annual inundation that can reach 14 m deep during 6-8 months. This flood pulse in combination with topography directly influences the várzea vegetation cover. Assemblages of several taxa differ significantly between unflooded terra firme and flooded várzea forests, but little is known about the distribution of medium and large sized terrestrial mammals in várzea habitats. Therefore, our goal was to understand how those habitats influence mammalian species distribution during the dry season. Specifically, we: (1) compared the species composition between a terra firme (Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve) and a várzea forest (Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve); and (2) tested the influence of the várzea habitat classes on the number of records, occurrence and species composition of mammalian assemblages. The sampling design in each reserve consisted of 50 baited camera trap stations, with an overall sampling eff...
Abundance data of bat species sampled at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Cen... more Abundance data of bat species sampled at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazon, Brazil, ~15 years (1996-2002) and ~30 years (2011-2013) after forest clearing. Data is organized as used for the joint species distribution model of the publication "Rocha, R., Ovaskainen, O., Lopez-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Sampaio, E., Bobrowiec, P., Cabeza, M., Palmeirim, J. and Meyer, C.F.J., 2018. Secondary forest regeneration benefits old-growth specialist bats in a fragmented tropical landscape. <i>Scientific Reports</i>. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-21999-2". Data includes: <br>Matrix Y: Abundance data of bat species captured during a given mist-netting session. <br>Matrix X: Covariates used for the joint species distribution model. These variables were: i) habitat type (coded as continuous_forest, fragment_interior or secondary_forest); ii) survey period (1996-2002 (coded as 1) or 2011-13 (coded as 2); iii) percentage of secondary fores...
Abundance data of bat species sampled at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Cen... more Abundance data of bat species sampled at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazon, Brazil, ~15 years (1996-2002) and ~30 years (2011-2013) after forest clearing. Data is organized as used for the joint species distribution model of the publication "Rocha, R., Ovaskainen, O., Lopez-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Sampaio, E., Bobrowiec, P., Cabeza, M., Palmeirim, J. and Meyer, C.F.J., 2018. Secondary forest regeneration benefits old-growth specialist bats in a fragmented tropical landscape. <i>Scientific Reports</i>. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-21999-2". Data includes: <br>Matrix Y: Abundance data of bat species captured during a given mist-netting session. <br>Matrix X: Covariates used for the joint species distribution model. These variables were: i) habitat type (coded as continuous_forest, fragment_interior or secondary_forest); ii) survey period (1996-2002 (coded as 1) or 2011-13 (coded as 2); iii) percentage of secondary fores...
Small, volant and nocturnal, bats face strong challenges to avoid heat loss. Among aerial insecti... more Small, volant and nocturnal, bats face strong challenges to avoid heat loss. Among aerial insectivores, body mass varies by two orders of magnitude between the smallest and the largest species. At low temperatures, physiological constraints should be harsher for smaller bats, as they lose more heat through their body surface than larger species. So, temperature variations should lead to distinct behavioural responses by bats of different body masses. Also, because they feed on arthropods, dependent on ambient temperature, aerial insectivores should halt feeding at low temperatures. Using ultrasound detectors and temperature and humidity sensors, we investigated how aerial insectivores of the coldest region in austral Brazil respond to nightly temperature variations and compared those responses between guilds of distinct body masses. We predict that smaller bats reduce their activity faster than larger bats, but that foraging should reduce simultaneously in the two guilds, as they depend on ectothermic prey. Bat activity reduced significantly below 12 °C. Larger bats maintained their activity at temperatures where the activity of smaller bats had already halted. However, larger bats foraged mostly during the first half of the night, at higher temperatures than those chosen by smaller bats to forage. We associate these differential responses to the thermal convection process, which may increase prey availability at higher altitudes, where larger molossids are known to forage. Smaller species, mostly edge-space hunters, probably take advantage of less variable prey availability during the night, resulting in a more regular behavioural pattern of navigation and foraging.
Várzea forests account for 17% of the Amazon basin and endure an annual inundation that can reach... more Várzea forests account for 17% of the Amazon basin and endure an annual inundation that can reach 14 m deep during 6–8 months. This flood pulse in combination with topography directly influences the várzea vegetation cover. Assemblages of several taxa differ significantly between unflooded terra firme and flooded vá rzea forests, but little is known about the distribution of medium and large sized terrestrial mammals in várzea habitats. Therefore , our goal was to understand how those habitats influence mammalian species distribution during the dry season. Specifically, we: (1) compared the species composition between a terra firme (Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve) and a várzea forest (Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve); and (2) tested the influence of the vá rzea habitat classes on the number of records, occurrence and species composition of mammalian assemblages. The sampling design in each reserve consisted of 50 baited camera trap stations, with an overall sampling ...
Eumops maurus and Eumops hansae are rarely captured Neotropical molossid bats for which informati... more Eumops maurus and Eumops hansae are rarely captured Neotropical molossid bats for which information on taxonomy, natural history, and spatial distribution are scarce. This translates into a poor understanding of their ecology and limits the delimitation of useful characters for their identification. Here, we describe records of these two molossids from the Central Brazilian Amazon, providing data on their external and craniodental morphology, DNA barcode (COI) sequences complemented by acoustic data for the species. Morphological characters, DNA sequence data and phylogenetic relationships within the genus Eumops were consistent with those previously described for both species. Echolocation call characteristics did not differ significantly so as to be useful for separating E. maurus and E. hansae from other congeners. Our records are, respectively the first and the second for Central Amazonia as one individual previously attributed to Eumops amazonicus from Manaus may be considered ...
Regenerating forests occupy large areas in the tropics, mostly as a result of deforestation for l... more Regenerating forests occupy large areas in the tropics, mostly as a result of deforestation for livestock and agriculture, followed by land abandonment. Despite the importance of regenerating secondary forests for tropical biodiversity conservation, studies of temporal effects of matrix regeneration on species responses in fragmented landscapes are scarce. Here, we used an Amazonian whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment to investigate how changes in matrix quality over time through secondary forest regeneration affect bat assemblages from a functional perspective. We found that forest regeneration in the matrix positively affected functional α diversity, as well as species-and community-level functional uniqueness, reflecting an increase of species that perform different ecological functions in secondary forest over time. According to functional trait composition, animalivorous species showed the clearest signs of recovery associated with matrix regeneration. Consequently, betwee...
Recent studies predict a future decrease in precipitation across the tropics, particularly the Am... more Recent studies predict a future decrease in precipitation across the tropics, particularly the Amazon, likely causing significant droughts that have negative consequences for Amazonian freshwater biomes, especially lakes. Furthermore, immediate consequences of global warming for terrestrial fauna associated with tropical lakes are poorly understood as the vast majority of studies come from temperate regions. Here, we assess the seasonal importance of lakes for the conservation of aerial insectivorous bats in the Central Amazon using passive bat recorders. We compared richness, general bat activity and foraging activity between lakes and adjacent forest. Of a total of 21 species/sonotypes recorded in both habitats, all were detected over lakes, and 18 were significantly more active over lakes than in forest. Only two species had significantly higher activity levels in the forest than at the lakes. Species richness and general bat activity over the lakes were higher in the dry than in...
Across the tropics, vast deforested areas are undergoing forest regeneration due to land abandonm... more Across the tropics, vast deforested areas are undergoing forest regeneration due to land abandonment. Although secondary forest is an expanding type of landscape matrix that has been shown to buffer some of the negative consequences of forest loss and fragmentation on taxonomic diversity, little is known in this regard about the functional dimension of biodiversity. We took advantage of an ecosystem-wide fragmentation experiment to investigate longer term changes in functional diversity of a mega-diverse Amazonian bat assemblage associated with regrowth development in the matrix. We found that matrix regeneration affected several facets of bat functional diversity in secondary forest over time, increasing functional a diversity, species-and community-level functional uniqueness, altering functional trait composition, and resulting in functional b-diversity changes via trait gains. However, approximately 30 years of matrix regeneration were insufficient for functional diversity to re...
Tropical forest loss and fragmentation are due to increase in coming decades. Understanding how m... more Tropical forest loss and fragmentation are due to increase in coming decades. Understanding how matrix dynamics, especially secondary forest regrowth, can lessen fragmentation impacts is key to understanding species persistence in modified landscapes. Here, we use a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment to investigate how bat assemblages are influenced by the regeneration of the secondary forest matrix. We surveyed bats in continuous forest, forest fragments and secondary forest matrix habitats, ~15 and ~30 years after forest clearance, to investigate temporal changes in the occupancy and abundance of old-growth specialist and habitat generalist species. The regeneration of the second growth matrix had overall positive effects on the occupancy and abundance of specialists across all sampled habitats. Conversely, effects on generalist species were negligible for forest fragments and negative for secondary forest. Our results show that the conservation potential of secondary forest...
There is increasing interest in the restoration/regeneration of degraded tropical habitats yet th... more There is increasing interest in the restoration/regeneration of degraded tropical habitats yet the potential role of natural regenerators remains unclear. We test the hypothesis that the richness and functional diversity of terrestrial mammals differs between forest regrowth stages. We quantified the richness and functional diversity of eight terrestrial mammal seed-disperser species across a forest regrowth gradient in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. We installed camera-traps in 15 sites within small-holder properties with forest regrowth stage classified into three groups, with five sites each of: late second-regrowth forest, early second-regrowth forest and abandoned pasture. Species richness and functional dispersion from the regrowth sites were compared with 15 paired forest control sites. Multi model selection showed that regrowth class was more important for explaining patterns in richness and functional diversity than other variables from three non-mutually exclusive hypothese...
Summary Understanding how interspecific variation in functional traits influences species’ capaci... more Summary Understanding how interspecific variation in functional traits influences species’ capacity to persist in fragments and use patches in fragmented landscapes is fundamental for the creation of effective conservation plans. This study uses phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate which functional traits of bat species are correlated with their vulnerability to fragmentation in a tropical landscape with low fragment–matrix contrast. Bats were captured over two years in eight forest fragments, nine control sites in continuous forest, and in the secondary forest matrix at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazon, Brazil. We tested the hypothesis that there is a significant relationship between species functional traits, environmental gradients (continuous forest and fragment interiors, edges and matrix) and patterns of species distribution using phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) models, as well as a combination of RLQ and fourth‐corne...
Várzea forests account for 17% of the Amazon basin and endure an annual inundation that can reach... more Várzea forests account for 17% of the Amazon basin and endure an annual inundation that can reach 14 m deep during 6-8 months. This flood pulse in combination with topography directly influences the várzea vegetation cover. Assemblages of several taxa differ significantly between unflooded terra firme and flooded várzea forests, but little is known about the distribution of medium and large sized terrestrial mammals in várzea habitats. Therefore, our goal was to understand how those habitats influence mammalian species distribution during the dry season. Specifically, we: (1) compared the species composition between a terra firme (Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve) and a várzea forest (Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve); and (2) tested the influence of the várzea habitat classes on the number of records, occurrence and species composition of mammalian assemblages. The sampling design in each reserve consisted of 50 baited camera trap stations, with an overall sampling eff...
Abundance data of bat species sampled at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Cen... more Abundance data of bat species sampled at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazon, Brazil, ~15 years (1996-2002) and ~30 years (2011-2013) after forest clearing. Data is organized as used for the joint species distribution model of the publication "Rocha, R., Ovaskainen, O., Lopez-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Sampaio, E., Bobrowiec, P., Cabeza, M., Palmeirim, J. and Meyer, C.F.J., 2018. Secondary forest regeneration benefits old-growth specialist bats in a fragmented tropical landscape. <i>Scientific Reports</i>. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-21999-2". Data includes: <br>Matrix Y: Abundance data of bat species captured during a given mist-netting session. <br>Matrix X: Covariates used for the joint species distribution model. These variables were: i) habitat type (coded as continuous_forest, fragment_interior or secondary_forest); ii) survey period (1996-2002 (coded as 1) or 2011-13 (coded as 2); iii) percentage of secondary fores...
Abundance data of bat species sampled at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Cen... more Abundance data of bat species sampled at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazon, Brazil, ~15 years (1996-2002) and ~30 years (2011-2013) after forest clearing. Data is organized as used for the joint species distribution model of the publication "Rocha, R., Ovaskainen, O., Lopez-Baucells, A., Farneda, F., Sampaio, E., Bobrowiec, P., Cabeza, M., Palmeirim, J. and Meyer, C.F.J., 2018. Secondary forest regeneration benefits old-growth specialist bats in a fragmented tropical landscape. <i>Scientific Reports</i>. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-21999-2". Data includes: <br>Matrix Y: Abundance data of bat species captured during a given mist-netting session. <br>Matrix X: Covariates used for the joint species distribution model. These variables were: i) habitat type (coded as continuous_forest, fragment_interior or secondary_forest); ii) survey period (1996-2002 (coded as 1) or 2011-13 (coded as 2); iii) percentage of secondary fores...
Small, volant and nocturnal, bats face strong challenges to avoid heat loss. Among aerial insecti... more Small, volant and nocturnal, bats face strong challenges to avoid heat loss. Among aerial insectivores, body mass varies by two orders of magnitude between the smallest and the largest species. At low temperatures, physiological constraints should be harsher for smaller bats, as they lose more heat through their body surface than larger species. So, temperature variations should lead to distinct behavioural responses by bats of different body masses. Also, because they feed on arthropods, dependent on ambient temperature, aerial insectivores should halt feeding at low temperatures. Using ultrasound detectors and temperature and humidity sensors, we investigated how aerial insectivores of the coldest region in austral Brazil respond to nightly temperature variations and compared those responses between guilds of distinct body masses. We predict that smaller bats reduce their activity faster than larger bats, but that foraging should reduce simultaneously in the two guilds, as they depend on ectothermic prey. Bat activity reduced significantly below 12 °C. Larger bats maintained their activity at temperatures where the activity of smaller bats had already halted. However, larger bats foraged mostly during the first half of the night, at higher temperatures than those chosen by smaller bats to forage. We associate these differential responses to the thermal convection process, which may increase prey availability at higher altitudes, where larger molossids are known to forage. Smaller species, mostly edge-space hunters, probably take advantage of less variable prey availability during the night, resulting in a more regular behavioural pattern of navigation and foraging.
Várzea forests account for 17% of the Amazon basin and endure an annual inundation that can reach... more Várzea forests account for 17% of the Amazon basin and endure an annual inundation that can reach 14 m deep during 6–8 months. This flood pulse in combination with topography directly influences the várzea vegetation cover. Assemblages of several taxa differ significantly between unflooded terra firme and flooded vá rzea forests, but little is known about the distribution of medium and large sized terrestrial mammals in várzea habitats. Therefore , our goal was to understand how those habitats influence mammalian species distribution during the dry season. Specifically, we: (1) compared the species composition between a terra firme (Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve) and a várzea forest (Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve); and (2) tested the influence of the vá rzea habitat classes on the number of records, occurrence and species composition of mammalian assemblages. The sampling design in each reserve consisted of 50 baited camera trap stations, with an overall sampling ...
Eumops maurus and Eumops hansae are rarely captured Neotropical molossid bats for which informati... more Eumops maurus and Eumops hansae are rarely captured Neotropical molossid bats for which information on taxonomy, natural history, and spatial distribution are scarce. This translates into a poor understanding of their ecology and limits the delimitation of useful characters for their identification. Here, we describe records of these two molossids from the Central Brazilian Amazon, providing data on their external and craniodental morphology, DNA barcode (COI) sequences complemented by acoustic data for the species. Morphological characters, DNA sequence data and phylogenetic relationships within the genus Eumops were consistent with those previously described for both species. Echolocation call characteristics did not differ significantly so as to be useful for separating E. maurus and E. hansae from other congeners. Our records are, respectively the first and the second for Central Amazonia as one individual previously attributed to Eumops amazonicus from Manaus may be considered ...
Regenerating forests occupy large areas in the tropics, mostly as a result of deforestation for l... more Regenerating forests occupy large areas in the tropics, mostly as a result of deforestation for livestock and agriculture, followed by land abandonment. Despite the importance of regenerating secondary forests for tropical biodiversity conservation, studies of temporal effects of matrix regeneration on species responses in fragmented landscapes are scarce. Here, we used an Amazonian whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment to investigate how changes in matrix quality over time through secondary forest regeneration affect bat assemblages from a functional perspective. We found that forest regeneration in the matrix positively affected functional α diversity, as well as species-and community-level functional uniqueness, reflecting an increase of species that perform different ecological functions in secondary forest over time. According to functional trait composition, animalivorous species showed the clearest signs of recovery associated with matrix regeneration. Consequently, betwee...
Recent studies predict a future decrease in precipitation across the tropics, particularly the Am... more Recent studies predict a future decrease in precipitation across the tropics, particularly the Amazon, likely causing significant droughts that have negative consequences for Amazonian freshwater biomes, especially lakes. Furthermore, immediate consequences of global warming for terrestrial fauna associated with tropical lakes are poorly understood as the vast majority of studies come from temperate regions. Here, we assess the seasonal importance of lakes for the conservation of aerial insectivorous bats in the Central Amazon using passive bat recorders. We compared richness, general bat activity and foraging activity between lakes and adjacent forest. Of a total of 21 species/sonotypes recorded in both habitats, all were detected over lakes, and 18 were significantly more active over lakes than in forest. Only two species had significantly higher activity levels in the forest than at the lakes. Species richness and general bat activity over the lakes were higher in the dry than in...
Across the tropics, vast deforested areas are undergoing forest regeneration due to land abandonm... more Across the tropics, vast deforested areas are undergoing forest regeneration due to land abandonment. Although secondary forest is an expanding type of landscape matrix that has been shown to buffer some of the negative consequences of forest loss and fragmentation on taxonomic diversity, little is known in this regard about the functional dimension of biodiversity. We took advantage of an ecosystem-wide fragmentation experiment to investigate longer term changes in functional diversity of a mega-diverse Amazonian bat assemblage associated with regrowth development in the matrix. We found that matrix regeneration affected several facets of bat functional diversity in secondary forest over time, increasing functional a diversity, species-and community-level functional uniqueness, altering functional trait composition, and resulting in functional b-diversity changes via trait gains. However, approximately 30 years of matrix regeneration were insufficient for functional diversity to re...
Tropical forest loss and fragmentation are due to increase in coming decades. Understanding how m... more Tropical forest loss and fragmentation are due to increase in coming decades. Understanding how matrix dynamics, especially secondary forest regrowth, can lessen fragmentation impacts is key to understanding species persistence in modified landscapes. Here, we use a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment to investigate how bat assemblages are influenced by the regeneration of the secondary forest matrix. We surveyed bats in continuous forest, forest fragments and secondary forest matrix habitats, ~15 and ~30 years after forest clearance, to investigate temporal changes in the occupancy and abundance of old-growth specialist and habitat generalist species. The regeneration of the second growth matrix had overall positive effects on the occupancy and abundance of specialists across all sampled habitats. Conversely, effects on generalist species were negligible for forest fragments and negative for secondary forest. Our results show that the conservation potential of secondary forest...
There is increasing interest in the restoration/regeneration of degraded tropical habitats yet th... more There is increasing interest in the restoration/regeneration of degraded tropical habitats yet the potential role of natural regenerators remains unclear. We test the hypothesis that the richness and functional diversity of terrestrial mammals differs between forest regrowth stages. We quantified the richness and functional diversity of eight terrestrial mammal seed-disperser species across a forest regrowth gradient in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. We installed camera-traps in 15 sites within small-holder properties with forest regrowth stage classified into three groups, with five sites each of: late second-regrowth forest, early second-regrowth forest and abandoned pasture. Species richness and functional dispersion from the regrowth sites were compared with 15 paired forest control sites. Multi model selection showed that regrowth class was more important for explaining patterns in richness and functional diversity than other variables from three non-mutually exclusive hypothese...
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Papers by Paulo Bobrowiec